"The retail revolution in India has unleashed a growth in the Indian label industry. This needs excellence in printing with enhanced capabilities to produce defect-free labels at high speeds and cost effectiveness," says Sahni.

The traction in Indian label printing industry is visible with three big shows lined up in the next three months. The Label Manufacturers Association of India’s (LMAI) conference – Innovations in Print is scheduled for 29-31 July 2011. PrintWeek India has teamed up with LMAI for a three-day seminar, which will be held at the Hotel Park Hyatt in Goa. International firms in the narrow-web industry will be available at the table-top exhibition while experts will discuss case-studies at the conference and throw some light on success stories and best practises. At the same time, LMAI will also be publishing a members' directory that will be released during the conference.

PackPlus South 2011 is scheduled before the LMAI conference from 1-4 July 2011 at Hyderabad. Though it is primarily a packaging show, it also has a converting zone where important industry suppliers to the label industry as well as label converters will be exhibiting their wares.

Labelexpo Europe 2011 will be held from 29 September to 1 October 2011 at Brussels. This year, workshops have been introduced at Labelexpo Europe. Three printing technologies (dry toner, liquid toner and inkjet) will be compared against each other during live machine demonstrations run by an independent moderator. The technologies will be represented by Xeikon, HP and EFI Jetrion respectively.

There will be four sessions per day, three of which will see different companies printing the same job – a food, pharmaceutical or personal care label – on the same substrate. The fourth session will allow participants to print a label of their choice. Visitors will also get to see the narrow web printing and converting technology undergoing a transition so as to integrate label printing, flexible packaging and package converting technologies on the same press. This would enable a label company to acquire one high-end press and have the capability to produce labels, shrink sleeves, flexible packaging, folding cartons, etc on the same equipment employing diverse print technologies.

The developments displayed at this event will be an eye-opener for future trends in the label industry.

Harveer Sahni, managing director at Weldon Celloplast has been in the self-adhesive industry since 30 years and has incomputably contributed to the industry.